Major League Baseball 2K9 Developer Diary: Gameplay

[DaveDQ]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K9 Developer Diary: Gameplay

What I've seen from 2K this year is an admission that last year's game was not something that worked. They aren't going around touting extra features and gimmicks, but rather, they are talking about where things didn't work, pitching, batting and atmosphere, and they are explaining how they have polished it.

Sounds good to me.

[bigfnjoe96]

Man I can't wait to experience that Real-Time Atmosphere. As for hitting Baa, I guess we'll have to wait til OS get their BETA to find-out if the Step Influence Slider has been removed.When I asked the dude @ gamespot about it he had no clue & actually said he couldn't find said slider.

As for trying to make the game more accessible, I can't blame 2k for trying to simplify the game. @ least he said for us vets, the game can still be challenging.

Hopefully we can get a Franchise Diary Next..

[slickzeus]

Well its good to hear that the developers are proud of the game. I would doubt a company would come out and say that if they knew it was garbage ala 2K8. March 3rd cant come soon enough!

[DiddyGotGrillz]

Please, Please, Please make this game so that it works OUT OF THE BOX!!! 2K Baseball Games have been pathetic for Next Gen systems and it is ridiculous!

I admit, I have never been a 2K sports fan. I feel like the controls are loose and sloppy. I never feel like I have control over my guy. I just don't see what you spend your time on during the offseason? Your player models are horrific and the gameplay isn't great.

STEP IT UP 2K....this is your last chance for me.

[baa7]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K9 Developer Diary: Gameplay

Your player models are horrific

You completely lost me there. What are you talking about??

[bigfnjoe96]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K9 Developer Diary: Gameplay

You completely lost me there. What are you talking about??

He has no idea what he's saying. He just needed spew his anger towards the 2k for putting out bad games the last 3 years.

[Trevytrev11]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K9 Developer Diary: Gameplay

Ø No more meatball – The idea of throwing a bad pitch when you made a poor gesture was good but the way we designated a meatball was definitely too harsh. What we did instead was to identify earlier on in the gesture process the pitch the user is attempting to throw, if they don’t finish the gesture or make a poor gesture we simply affect the way that pitch is thrown. For example, Fastballs will be straighter and slower while Curveballs will have less break on the ball. Naturally, this will make those pitches more hittable without making them “meatballs”.

Great news there. Finally there was is some confirmation on this (unless I missed it before).

Ø Removed the “Release Timing” - We felt that the “Release Timing” aspect of throwing a pitch made the game less accessible. After thorough focus testing, we discovered that the aspect of pitching that attributed to the most “meatballs” was the release timing. As a result, we kept “Release timing” as an option to the user but not on the default controls. If a user loved the way it worked last year, they can turn it on from the pause menu.

Not sure about this. How does an analog pitching system work without release timing? Instead of release timing, is it push timing? If so it's the same concept, isn't it? Instead of back-hold-forward-hold-time your release for a fastball is it just back-hold-time your forward to throw the pitch? If so, It's basically the same thing, just a little simpler, I guess.

Ø Inside Edge Data driving the AI – Inside Edge is our exclusive scouting service which is also used by some MLB teams to get reports on players. As in previous years, you can purchase these reports during your franchise to earn an extra advantage when facing the AI opponents. Our pitcher’s decision making is primarily based off Inside Edge data for pitchers and weaknesses. When deciding what pitch to throw where, our pitchers have to take into consideration many different variables most simply broken down into two aspects:
o What does the pitcher want to throw and where?
o What are the hitter’s weaknesses?

I really wish that there was an adapatable AI here. Scouting reports are nice, but you learn a lot more from the last swing of a hitter. If my hitter kills fastballs, but me as a user am a crappy fastball hitter, the game should adapt, recognize this and throw more fastballs. If a guy waits on a curve and crushes it foul by a few feet, you probably don't want to throw that pitch again just because IE says he's a crappy curveball hitter...Basically, Inside Edge goes out the door when a user is at the controls.

Lastly, we implemented zone hitting as an alternate control scheme. Zone hitting is where you have a cursor and you have to put the cursor in the same zone that the ball crosses the plate in addition to your regular swing. Zone hitting works with either the Classic swing (press A button) or Total Control (RStick). We also added a “sweet spot” to the cursor, if you lineup the “sweet spot” of the cursor where the ball crosses the plate, the hitter will get an additional boost to your hit.

Digging this, though it would be nice to have a hidden cursor once you grow familar with the sensitivity of the controls.

Basically, when you have a runner on first base you press LT (L2 on PS3) to take a lead. To steal, hold LT until it vibrates which will indicate that your runner is ready to take off. The runner will now take off when you release the button. Stealing “on the fly” certainly adds a lot of fun to base stealing because now the user is forced to try to get a good jump on the pitcher. If you get a good jump, you will actually take off right before the pitcher starts his delivery and get a perfect steal.
We also added a little more information for pitchers, if you look over at the runner that’s on base, we give you his “steal rating” which indicates how much of a threat he is, so if you have Benji Molina standing at 1<SUP>st</SUP>, his steal rating will be pretty low and you can focus on the hitter.

Intriguing. I like the idea of loading the steal and releasing the trigger to go. I wonder how you would go back on a pick off. Maybe just continue to hold the trigger? Also, I hope their term of "perfect steal" isn't some sort of boost that guarantee's your runner is safe.

-Hopefully next year they add a few things to the pitchers arsenal to combat this...a variety of picks as well as incorporating the slide step for pitchers that use it (some don't ever use it).

The chioce to simplify the game out of the box don't bother since they are offering options. It's a little concerning only in the fact that because it's the out of the box way, I think that maybe things like zone hitting and the three step pitching method maybe didn't get full attention, but only time will tell.

[jaebonez34]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K9 Developer Diary: Gameplay

Was a good read but I have one question about the baserunning. In the article they say they have changed it so now you control what base the runner goes to with the right stick but my question is what does that do to the directional sliding? It's prob. something simple but it must have changed because of the new baserunning controls.

[Trevytrev11]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K9 Developer Diary: Gameplay

Was a good read but I have one question about the baserunning. In the article they say they have changed it so now you control what base the runner goes to with the right stick but my question is what does that do to the directional sliding? It's prob. something simple but it must have changed because of the new baserunning controls.

Good question...maybe they just moved it to the L-Stick since I don't believe it serves a purpose when running in 2K8.

[Trevytrev11]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K9 Developer Diary: Gameplay

"When evaluating the hitting system we knew that we really liked swinging with the right stick. We wanted to keep the same basic swing of pressing DOWN and then UP to time the actual swing. In MLB 2K8, we felt that most pickup and play users struggled with figuring out when to press down thus resulting in many poor hits. In order to fit our overall goal of making the game more accessible, we allowed the user to press down to “set” at any point during the at bat. We found that this not only made the game more accessible, it also made the game significantly more fun and allowed us to implement other aspects of hitting so that the user can focus more on pitch, and location of the pitch.

So let me get this straight. They removed the step influence feature, to make the game more "assessible" to "pick up and play" gamers. FAN-tastic...

I know this is a big game killer for you and others that appreciated the sytem.

My one saving grace is that hopefully the incorporation of zone hitting will add back most or all of the level of difficulty that is lost with the step influence. I imagine with pitch speed way up, it will be one helluva challenge just to locate the ball and time the swing to make solid contact.

And who knows, without giving it a try, an analog hitting system with pure step influence and a zone hitting system may have just been too much to handle, but who knows without trying.

[7stringking]

Please, Please, Please make this game so that it works OUT OF THE BOX!!! 2K Baseball Games have been pathetic for Next Gen systems and it is ridiculous!

I admit, I have never been a 2K sports fan. I feel like the controls are loose and sloppy. I never feel like I have control over my guy. I just don't see what you spend your time on during the offseason? Your player models are horrific and the gameplay isn't great.

STEP IT UP 2K....this is your last chance for me.

2k games, as a general rule, have far better physics and controls than most EA games.....It is hard to compare playing defense in 2k Football to madden Defense....Overall I would say that 2k have a much more analog and warm feel, as opposed to EA, whose games are more digital and sterile

I am a huge fan(and very recent convert) to NHL09 and FIFA09...These games are fantastic!FIFA in particular feels very warm and responsive(especially on a morezoomed in camera in BAP mode)...NHL09 is just solid

Even though I have bashed EA a lot in the past, I am glad to see them improving...The more good sports games, the better......So making a baseless statement about 2k Sports is pure drivel.If you were being critical of their past few MLB games you might make some sense.

[JayhawkerStL]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K9 Developer Diary: Gameplay

Everything sounded like they are making solid improvements where they need to be. I had set my step influence to 0 on 2K8, so even ther hitting feels like they are doing the right thing. I would hope, though, that they include the step influence as an option as theyhasve wit the release timing for pitching. Step influence would not be bad if they gave a more measurable way to indicating when to step.

But baserunning has me a little worried. I really enjoyed last year's version. the trigers woked very well, and I would like to sick with that control.

I did like the new basestealing controls. You are now giving the user much more control over the success rate. The only downside could be an over-emphasis on that part of the game in online play. I can see lots of pick-offs and steal attempts moving the focus away from the pitcher/batter match-up. Playing solo, this is great, as having a runner on should skew the focus. But online, this could be a part of the game some players will make more annoying than ever.

[Blzer]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K9 Developer Diary: Gameplay

Well in the end, at least real time is finally explained to those who didn't get it. I hope they stop saying "living world" and all of that jazz, thinking that like grass is supposed to grow and birds are supposed to ****.

So far, it seems that my only issue with the game is the lighting in general. It doesn't seem to be progressive, and there's just something about the day games where the sun's position in the sky doesn't feel right. I know, nitpicking at its finest, right? Well anyone that watches their favorite team on TV might feel like they aren't at their stadium with the way that it's presented, as it's somewhat right overhead yet a bit behind the batter, but at the same time it still feels earlier than later (most stadiums are positioned for the sun to fall behind the third base line, meaning even if the sun ever hit this position it at least wouldn't be so "early" out).

But if that's the only issue, then I have high hopes for this game returning back to basic form, which is great! Now the only concern is if the PS3 version will hold up at all.

[baa7]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K9 Developer Diary: Gameplay

And who knows, without giving it a try, an analog hitting system with pure step influence and a zone hitting system may have just been too much to handle, but who knows without trying.

You make too much sense. Let me wallow in my misery. Hey: The good news is that I'm DEFINITELY not going to run out and buy this game now until I rent it first!

[totalownership]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K9 Developer Diary: Gameplay

My biggest concern with the game is hit variety. Hopefully it's not just the same 3 or 4 type of hits all the time. I've been playing MLB 09 demo and they got it down over there. I'm hoping against hope that 2K has mixed it up as well.